Sims, Wyan

"I believe it was in 1945 Leroy Johnson and I worked for Rusty Bullocks in his blacksmith shop. All the men who were able to work worked in the mines and the young men were in the armed forces so a lot of us boys did some of the work. I can't recall how much we made, but it seemed like a whole lot to us. They would cut a round sheet of steel one fourth of an inch, I think, and we placed it on a round cast iron jig. Then we took sledge hammers and bent the edges down, when we were done the men riveted them on the bottom of the can. I believe these held 1650 pounds of rock. It was hard work for us boys. Leroy was the kind of boy that all people liked, but one night he lost his life in an automobile accident on Highway 60. After that I worked at the Smokey Hill Mine in Commerce Oklahoma. They said it was one of the deepest shafts in the camp. We high graded lead, digging it out of the crevices in the walls. We were paid by the pound. One night we went down to work and as we walked away from the shaft, we heard a noise. We looked and the car, cable and all, had fallen to the bottom. The boss said to go ahead and work, it would be some time before we could get out, so we did and along about quitting time a can came down and we rode it out. When we got to the top, we saw that it was Art Bartlett, who was the only one in the mining camp that had a winch truck with 400 feet of cable on it. There were too many of us to all get in the can so we rode with one leg in and one leg hanging out of the can. Needless to say, I didn't work there very long". . . by Wyan Sims